This Time Forever
by KingDemon
Summary: Dumbledore was going to die, but he had one last thing he wanted to do, though he couldn't for the life of him figure out why he found it so important. Neither one of them wanted to go through this. Why couldn't he leave the ashes to rest?


**I've had this urge to write this one while I was reading the final book of the series. Never thought I'd have a desire to, but here it is. **

THIS TIME FOREVER

Albus Dumbledore couldn't believe what he was staring at. How many years had it been? It had been decades since last he'd laid eyes upon _him_, yet why was he shocked to see the state of him? The skeletal figure was in a corner, boney knees brought up to chest level and scrawny arms draped over them. He was nearly bald, white stragglers like wire on his head. His ears and nose were bigger than Albus remembered and his eyes had sunk into his skull. Wrinkles etched every part of his face like deep scars and bags were beneath his eyes...his eyes that still shone with that ever-piercing blue.

Gellert Grindelwald was staring at Albus like he had never stared at him before. His features were inscrutable, but his eyes told a century long story full of immense pain and suffering, lost power, fallen glory, and unrivaled bitterness like only Albus could know and understand. It was a story they shared together, even though Albus had tried for many years to ignore his involvement in it.

As he stared into the depths of those eyes, Albus questioned why he had come. Sure, death was closing in around him, but he had more important things to do with the remaining time he had instead of visiting the ruins of old memories he'd much rather forget. Neither men wanted to face this final meeting. Neither wanted to meet under such circumstances as neither really ever wanted to meet again at all. The scars were too deep on their hearts. The memories chiseled into their minds. There was too much agony, too many falsehoods, too strong of feelings between them to be able to meet in these final days and not hate this encounter as much as the one before it.

However, Albus was shocked when Gellert finally spoke, his voice a rasp from lack of use, and his words were surprising all the more.

"Is it that time already?" Gellert asked as his eyes slipped down to stare at Albus' blackened hand. "Hard to tell the time in a place like this."

"I imagine so." Albus managed to answer as he stood there. "I wanted to say..."

Gellert interrupted him. "I'm sorry."

Albus was stiff, his breathing shallow and his mind swimming with memories and thoughts as accusations held tight to the tip of his tongue. It took a moment for him to reorganize himself and he eventually whispered, "The time for apologies is a bit past."

"It's never too late to make amends." Gellert gave a fierce smile and Albus, though he wondered why, was glad to see the fire had yet to die from the other man. "I'm sorry. I was a fool and I was arrogant. Worse, I was selfish."

There was a pause and then he gave a laugh that momentarily unsettled Albus before the other could continue.

"Ah...I've spent years in this place going over what I wanted to say to you if you ever came. I had a perfect little monologue going. Every word and every sentence just...worked...ahhh, but you are here and the whole thing has just slipped away."

A tiny hint of a smile graced Albus' lips and he murmured, "Funny how that happens."

"Oh, Albus." Gellert grinned, his smile awkward because most of his teeth were gone. "I am a terrible terrible terrible person and I must say what makes me so terrible isn't just because of what I did to all of Europe with my subjugation and my terrorizing and my lack of mercy and my pure unfounded hatred of Muggles."

"Gellert..." Albus didn't want to hear it.

"It was my spell, Albus."

Albus' eyes closed.

"It was my spell that took her life." Gellert croaked. "I did it. It was me. I tore your family to its final ruins. I snatched away the final brick. I thought if I got rid of her and your brother you would be held down no more and we could go. I had no idea...I didn't know that you loved them. I thought you saw them only as a burden."

"You thought wrong."

"I did!" Gellert agreed. "I was wrong because I didn't know what love really was! I thought it was merely a tool to use against others! A way to manipulate the weak who felt it! I had no idea how wrong I was!"

Albus didn't say anything. His eyes were still closed and his head bowed. He wanted this conversation over now, but he couldn't bring himself to leave.

"No amount of remorse will bring her back though, will it?" Gellert finally muttered. "But I thought it would be nice for you to not have to blame yourself any more."

"For that, I thank you." Albus said. "But it is still partially me to blame. If I hadn't befriended you, lost sight of my moral boundaries, and actually cared about my own family instead of being selfish, none of that would have happened."

"Yes." Gellert nodded. "Yes. If you hadn't done all that, but I notice an important thing...the key mentioned first of what you shouldn't have done: you befriended _me_, Albus. So the source of all your woe is still me."

"If you're expecting pity..."

"No. No. No." Gellert waved a weak hand at this notion and made an incredibly Scrooge-like "_Bah!_" before continuing. "I only wanted to tell you I was sorry, but I did want to tell you why I was sorry the most before we say our good-byes."

Albus sighed and motioned for him to proceed.

"I am sorry I broke your trust." Gellert told him and the honesty in his voice nearly destroyed Albus. "I'm sorry I manipulated you. I knew your feelings and I chose to use them to my advantage. I knew you liked me romantically. I found it amusing, but mostly useful and I used your emotions to get you to cooperate, to lose sight of your morality. I'm sorry for that."

Albus gave a pathetic nod and asked, "And you really are sorry, Gellert?"

"Oh, yes, Albus. Very." Gellert's smile was feebler this time than the last. "You have no idea how much I regret what I did. It took years afterwards to realize why I felt so badly for what I had done. Then it took many more years after that to accept the truth."

"The truth?" Albus asked, his voice cracking from the constrained emotion.

"The truth that I loved you in return." Gellert whispered and his voice was wet. "I should never have done any of the things I did to you and your family. I know forgiveness will never come for my actions and that the love will never be returned, but I thought you should know...no...you didn't need to know..._I_ needed to tell you."

Albus sighed waveringly and finally opened his watery eyes to stare at Gellert, whose own eyes were spilling tears down his cheeks.

"My own love has always been with you." Albus admitted, swallowing at the lump in his throat. "I could never kill it off, no matter how hard I tried."

Gellert was grinning again, but it was sad and happy. The fierceness had gone. "Oh, Albus. I wish we were young again and we could try again with all the knowledge we have today."

"Yes. Yes." Albus agreed, smiling in return. "I often wish that."

They continued to stare at each other. The wounds were still deep on their hearts. The pain was still throbbing inside of their souls. The memories were still carved in their minds. Despite this, there seemed to be a great lifting of tension and the weight of guilt and anger soared far away from them.

"This is good-bye, isn't it?" Gellert eventually inquired.

"This time forever." Albus nodded slowly.

"Oh, no, not forever." Gellert smiled in amusement. "Good-byes are never forever."

"Oh?" Albus' eyes were twinkling again with their old familiar light and the years that had passed since their days of youth seemed to vanish in the air. They were young again, their friendship new and exciting, and the question held the hint that Albus already knew the answer: Gellert merely needed to say it aloud.

"I'll meet you on the other side and we'll be friends and we'll be in love. This time forever."

**Hope you enjoyed. Review if you want. **


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